Thüring von Ringoltingen

Albrecht Classen (University of Arizona)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.2: German-language Writing and Culture: Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, 800-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

Born c. 1411
Died 1485
Activity 1450-1483

Places

Born in Switzerland
Active in Switzerland

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Translator

Resources

Ringoltingen's Works

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Thüring von Ringoltingen is famous for his early modern German prose novel,

Melusine

, which he completed in 1456. As he tells us both in the prologue and the epilogue, he had found this story to be so wondrous and amazing that he could not resist translating it from French to German. Margrave Rudolf von Hochberg, Count of Neuchâtel, had provided him with the source and tasked him to render the text into German. Rudolf himself, however, was completely fluent in French, serving at some point as councilmen for Duke Philip the Good (1396-1467), and so he must have commissioned this translation for representational purposes only. Thüring completed his efforts on 28 January 1456, drawing from the French version, Couldrette’s verse narrative (c. 1401 or 1405). The latter had originated from…

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2570 words

Citation: Classen, Albrecht. "Thüring von Ringoltingen". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 December 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14686, accessed 31 October 2024.]